Kahlan's Reckoning
by tinylexie
Summary: Kahlan may have had to marry Darken Rahl in "Reckoning," but her heart always belonged to Richard.


You're in the future, Richard.

You left me behind

In the grasp of Darken Rahl.

I knew that you would come rescue me, Richard,

If you could,

But you're years ahead of me.

I must somehow come to you.

I must somehow bring you back to me.

I remember the day I first met you, Richard.

You saved my life, and I wasn't very grateful for it.

I deeply apologize; my pride got in the way.

You must understand, Richard,

Confessors don't really have anyone

That truly care about them as human beings.

I was not used to receiving help or comfort

From someone who was not a Confessor.

I always thought that my only family

Would be other Confessors,

But you changed everything, Richard.

You turned my world upside down,

But for the better.

You have become my everything, Richard.

You are what gave me strength,

Even in my darkest hours as Darken Rahl's wife.

Forgive me for my marriage to that demon, Richard;

But I had to do it,

So that you can one day return to my time

And defeat Darken Rahl.

I showed Rahl a brave face,

But I was frightened inside.

My love for you, Richard, is what kept me going.

Thinking about you, Richard, is what kept me

From falling apart in front of our greatest enemy.

I must confess, Richard, at first I did not think

That you had what it took to be the Seeker.

You had not been prepared or trained in any way.

You had to learn as we journeyed,

But you soon proved yourself worthy.

All your life, Richard, you thought yourself

As nothing more than a simple woods guide.

Overnight you had to become a great hero

Whose destiny was to save the world

From an evil tyrant.

You had to endure things, Richard,

That no one should ever have to endure.

You had to kill in order to live another day,

And it was not in your heart to be a killer.

You didn't want to kill, Richard,

But Darken Rahl made killing necessary.

He would have had the world under his control

If you had not dared to stand up against him.

War is a horrible thing,

But I know, Richard,

That you will one day make things right.

As soon as Rahl is dead,

There can finally be peace.

I need my Seeker, Richard,

To achieve the great victory over Rahl.

You need to be returned to my time, Richard,

So that you can fulfill your destiny.

Shota told me that you would need a Confessor

In order to come back to me.

I knew that Rahl would never allow me

To be that Confessor,

But I also knew that he wanted a Confessor child.

I remember the day we found out, Richard,

That Rahl wanted to become a Confessor himself.

His treacherous wizard, Giller,

Put me through so much agony,

But Rahl wounded me in the worse way possible

When he threatened to confess you, Richard.

I could not bear the thought of the man that I loved

Becoming Rahl's slave.

You showed me a new way

Of looking at the world, Richard.

You stopped me from killing an innocent child.

You reminded me of the innocents

That needed to be saved from Rahl

And all the other evil in the world.

You were always willing, Richard,

To put your live in danger for a total stranger.

I thought that nobody else but me

Cared about saving the world,

But you, Richard,

Showed me the goodness in others.

Together, Richard, we helped and saved many people.

You touched many people's lives for the better.

Most importantly, Richard,

You made me feel like a woman.

Confessors don't have lovers

Because a Confessor's touch

Would destroy her lover's mind.

I never thought that I would ever fall in love,

But then I met you, Richard.

You did not resent me or feared me

Because of what I was.

I have never had that experienced before.

People respect me, yes,

But they all fear my touch.

You never feared my touch, Richard,

Even after you witnessed me

Falling into the Blood Rage, the Con Dar.

I did it for you, Richard.

My love for you and my desire to protect you

Made me transform into a monster,

Yet you still did not run in the opposite direction.

You still did not turn your back to me, Richard.

Instead, you approached me and dared to touch me.

You saw the woman behind the Mother Confessor.

We suffered so many hardships together, Richard.

One of the worse moments for me

Was when you wanted me to confess you

In order to save you from falling under Denna's control.

I cannot help but admire you, Richard.

You would have willingly become my slave

In order to keep yourself from killing me.

You are the most selfless person that I've ever met, Richard.

You want to save life, to preserve life.

I could not confess you, though, Richard.

I could never destroy the man that I loved.

I believed in you, Richard.

I believed in your strength.

I believe in you still, Richard,

Even though you are many years in the future.

I gave in to Rahl's demands.

I became his wife and gave him his Confessor child.

I did it all for you, Richard.

After all the sacrifices that you have made,

It was time for me to make a sacrifice of my own.

I felt dirty when I laid with Rahl,

But I knew that you would understand, Richard.

I knew that you would realize

That I did it for you.

You have always been able

To see the goodness in me, Richard,

Even in my worse moments.

I loved my son, Nicholas,

Even though I feared what he would become.

I raised him as if he was your child, Richard,

Instead of Rahl's.

I couldn't help but love him,

Even though I despised his father.

There was never a moment

Where I ever felt love for Rahl.

I know that you know that already, Richard,

But I had to say it anyways.

Even though we can never be together,

My heart will always belong to you, Richard,

And to you alone.

I thought that I had failed you, Richard,

When I saw the monster

That Nicholas had become,

A monster even worse than his demonic father.

Yet, even as my own son became my executioner,

I thought only of you, Richard.

I knew that Rahl would not destroy Nicholas.

Rahl's desire to control Nicholas's power

And to use it for his own dark purposes

Was much too strong for that.

I knew that you would have your Confessor, Richard,

But I feared that he would destroy you.

Yet, even as I draw my last breath, Richard,

I still have faith in you.

You are, after all, the true Seeker.

Don't grieve for me, Richard.

Please, for me, Richard,

Stay strong and concentrate on the task at hand.

You must return from the future to set things right

Because I know that you have what it takes, Richard,

To fulfill the prophecy

And to save the world from Darken Rahl's tyranny.

You are my hero and my love, Richard,

And you always will be,

Even though I am now dead;

For not even Death itself, Richard,

Can destroy a love

As strong and as powerful as ours.

There is, after all, no greater power

Than the power known as Love.


End file.
